September 26, 2004
September 03, 2004
Mom & Dad 40th anniversary
Married for 40 years & still going strong: mom & dad! 1964 - 2004.
We have produced a special photo-album for the occasion. It's in Dutch, but you'll get the gist by looking at the pictures ;-)
We have produced a special photo-album for the occasion. It's in Dutch, but you'll get the gist by looking at the pictures ;-)
July 19, 2004
Damn!
It's been 2 months since my last post. Quick overview:
-finished school with 45 out of 60 points => not bad for an 38-year old!
-went to Istanbul, Turkey to visit a friend. George W. Bush just happened to be in town as well which meant the entire city was closed off. Thanks a lot Dubya!
-Started work at Orange (mobile phone company) as MMS Marketeer (don't ask, too complicated to explain). Great office in The Hague; business model is a bit shaky though (mmm, reminds me of the dotcom heyday.....)
-bought a new car!
I'll post some pictures as soon as I have figured out again how the damn directory structure supposed to be working, grrrrmmbl....
-finished school with 45 out of 60 points => not bad for an 38-year old!
-went to Istanbul, Turkey to visit a friend. George W. Bush just happened to be in town as well which meant the entire city was closed off. Thanks a lot Dubya!
-Started work at Orange (mobile phone company) as MMS Marketeer (don't ask, too complicated to explain). Great office in The Hague; business model is a bit shaky though (mmm, reminds me of the dotcom heyday.....)
-bought a new car!
I'll post some pictures as soon as I have figured out again how the damn directory structure supposed to be working, grrrrmmbl....
May 27, 2004
Queen's Day 2004
Queens Day 2004 was wild as usual. Great weather, tons of people and lots and lots of alcohol ;-). Pictures can be found here.
If Yahoo causes trouble you can use the following login + pw:
login: rennab2000
pw: middenweg
If Yahoo causes trouble you can use the following login + pw:
login: rennab2000
pw: middenweg
Search Kings
We're in business!
www.searchenginekings.nl and www.searchkings.nl are live.
It's all in Dutch, but we're doing search engine marketing for a handful of companies. A few more clients and I can live of the proceeds; yeah!
www.searchenginekings.nl and www.searchkings.nl are live.
It's all in Dutch, but we're doing search engine marketing for a handful of companies. A few more clients and I can live of the proceeds; yeah!
Sam's birthday 2004
Lidy & Marcel are good friends of mine and their daughter Sam just turned 3. We had a little birthday bash in the park and were watched by a real-life stork that is nesting there! Check out the pictures!
If Yahoo is causing trouble you can use the following login and password:
login: rennab2000
pw: middenweg
If Yahoo is causing trouble you can use the following login and password:
login: rennab2000
pw: middenweg
March 15, 2004
Bolhuis breeding
My little brothers just turned 37 years of age. And as if 5 kids aren't enough, number 6 is on its way......
From left to right: Madelief (3), Isa (1,5), Gijs (8), Mirre (6), Stijn (3).
More pictures can be found here.
From left to right: Madelief (3), Isa (1,5), Gijs (8), Mirre (6), Stijn (3).
More pictures can be found here.
February 12, 2004
Bolhuis blog in English
And now for something completely different.............
As far as I can tell, far away friends in places such as London, California and Australia don't speak a word of Dutch and wouldn't it be nice if they could also keep track of my whereabouts via the WWW!
This therefore is the international section of www.bolhuis.net. Pretty similar to the Dutch version I'd say. Enjoy!
As far as I can tell, far away friends in places such as London, California and Australia don't speak a word of Dutch and wouldn't it be nice if they could also keep track of my whereabouts via the WWW!
This therefore is the international section of www.bolhuis.net. Pretty similar to the Dutch version I'd say. Enjoy!
February 11, 2004
Back to school!
After six hectic years in online media I thought it was high time I'd take a sabbatical. Doing nothing at all gets very boring very quickly though and I enrolled at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam where I'm currently studying Computer Science. Have a look at the website.
And yes, my classmates are only half my age, and yes, they can be quite nerdy, but we're nonetheless having quite a bit of fun.
In January we built the prototype of a website for -get this- a man from Latvia who works in Amsterdam, but teaches a summer course in History at a management school in his homeland (are you still there?). We were quite pleased with the results. NB: the login is fake; click anywhere and you'll enter the site.
The faculty actually has a pretty good reputation and one of the professors is even famous! His name is Andy Tanenbaum (American of course) and he wrote THE book on computer networks.
He recently made a hilarious video to promote a new Masters degree. Check it out! It's pretty brilliant. His personal FAQ is also pretty cool.
A short history
And while I'm at it, here's some general information about my professional life in the last 8 years or so. In 1996/97 I was working for a company called NetHold Electronic Media which was setting up a digital satellite platform in Holland, Belgium and Scandinavia. Not that I knew anything about digital satellites, but I learned pretty quickly! It was a great company, very well funded, lots of talented people and a very interesting product.
The company also had internet-access which was quite rare at the time and I spent a lot of time with this incredibly interesting new medium. I had seen some demos before and a roommate even had internet-access himself, but that was on a very old computer with an even older modem ;-(
Anyway, after Canal+ bought NetHold in February 1997, they immediately shut down its European headquarter and sacked all the people. During the summer I worked on the houseboat that I bought a couple of months earlier and decided that I definitely wanted to work in the still nascent internet industry.
That chance presented itself in the form of MediaSynergY, a media-buying company which was getting questions from clients who wanted to advertise online and didn't know how to go about that. I set up their online advertising department which grew to about 6 employees in 1998/1999. The company was sold to Starcom in 2000/2001.
I had already left by then to set up the Dutch office for an American start-up, called 24/7 Media. We built a huge online advertising network and did very well until the dotcom crash in 2001. Eventually the company ran out of money and folded.
Again, I had already left by then and helped establish the American office of a Dutch start-up in New York. The company, now called Quova had spent a year putting together a massive database of IP addresses which could be used for marketing or security purposes. Unfortunately, this company also ran out of money and I returned to Holland in the spring of 2001.
There I started to work for Ilse Media, Holland's largest online publisher. Have a look at www.startpagina.nl, www.ilse.nl & www.nu.nl if you want to get an idea. I helped develop a new search engine and had a great time there => the large number of attractive women was one of the reasons ;-). Have a look at the video! It's in Dutch, but you'll get the gist. It even features me mommy.....;-) Note: you need RealPlayer to view it.
At the same time I was asked to be a board member for IPAN , a network of appr. 350 people working in the New Media industry in Holland. As we (a group of 7 people) took over, it was in utter disrepair; no money, no administration, no nothing. It took us 6 months to stave off bankrupcy and it now is once again a thriving organisation. We organised a bunch of Events and had a great time over all.
Workwise, the dotcom crash was still in full force; Ilse laid off 2/3 of its people in the summer of 2002 and I had to look for yet another job. Luckily Lycos was still hiring and as I wanted to buy a new appartment I accepted their offer. The job was soso (selling online advertising space to people who either weren't interested or didn't have the money) and by the summer of 2003 I'd had more than enough and decided to go back to school!. That story can be found in my next post.
The company also had internet-access which was quite rare at the time and I spent a lot of time with this incredibly interesting new medium. I had seen some demos before and a roommate even had internet-access himself, but that was on a very old computer with an even older modem ;-(
Anyway, after Canal+ bought NetHold in February 1997, they immediately shut down its European headquarter and sacked all the people. During the summer I worked on the houseboat that I bought a couple of months earlier and decided that I definitely wanted to work in the still nascent internet industry.
That chance presented itself in the form of MediaSynergY, a media-buying company which was getting questions from clients who wanted to advertise online and didn't know how to go about that. I set up their online advertising department which grew to about 6 employees in 1998/1999. The company was sold to Starcom in 2000/2001.
I had already left by then to set up the Dutch office for an American start-up, called 24/7 Media. We built a huge online advertising network and did very well until the dotcom crash in 2001. Eventually the company ran out of money and folded.
Again, I had already left by then and helped establish the American office of a Dutch start-up in New York. The company, now called Quova had spent a year putting together a massive database of IP addresses which could be used for marketing or security purposes. Unfortunately, this company also ran out of money and I returned to Holland in the spring of 2001.
There I started to work for Ilse Media, Holland's largest online publisher. Have a look at www.startpagina.nl, www.ilse.nl & www.nu.nl if you want to get an idea. I helped develop a new search engine and had a great time there => the large number of attractive women was one of the reasons ;-). Have a look at the video! It's in Dutch, but you'll get the gist. It even features me mommy.....;-) Note: you need RealPlayer to view it.
At the same time I was asked to be a board member for IPAN , a network of appr. 350 people working in the New Media industry in Holland. As we (a group of 7 people) took over, it was in utter disrepair; no money, no administration, no nothing. It took us 6 months to stave off bankrupcy and it now is once again a thriving organisation. We organised a bunch of Events and had a great time over all.
Workwise, the dotcom crash was still in full force; Ilse laid off 2/3 of its people in the summer of 2002 and I had to look for yet another job. Luckily Lycos was still hiring and as I wanted to buy a new appartment I accepted their offer. The job was soso (selling online advertising space to people who either weren't interested or didn't have the money) and by the summer of 2003 I'd had more than enough and decided to go back to school!. That story can be found in my next post.
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